A wireless local area network (Wireless Local Area Network, WLAN for short) is a quite convenient data transmission system, and implements data transmission by using a radio frequency (Radio Frequency, RF for short) technology according to a relatively simple network architecture.
A common WLAN network architecture includes two modes: a local forwarding mode and a centralized forwarding mode. In the local forwarding mode, a station (Station) is wirelessly connected to an access point (Access Point, AP for short), and the AP accesses the Internet (Internet) by using a router (Router). An access controller (Access controller, AC for short) is disposed on a router side. The AC establishes a control link (a link used to transmit control signaling) to the AP, so as to perform control management on the AP. The AP establishes a data link (a link used to transmit user data) to the Internet by using the router, so as to complete forwarding of service data of the station. A difference between the centralized forwarding mode and the local forwarding mode lies in that in addition to a control management function, a data forwarding function is also performed by using the AC.
In a process of implementing the present invention, the inventor finds that the prior art has at least the following problem: in the local forwarding mode, the AC cannot control service data forwarding; in the centralized forwarding mode, although control of the AC on service data forwarding is implemented, a large data flow has an extremely high requirement for a processing capability of the AC; in addition, the data link and the control link between the AP and the AC are a same link, and therefore, the service data and the control signaling affect each other, which hinders an improvement of a WLAN throughput.